Fly or Lure?

This should raise some eyebrows... or not. The same folks who produce the Fish Skulls also make a product called a Flash Generator. Well, obviously, it is a blade. I suppose they expect you to use them with patterns tied with the Fish Skulls but I tried that and it is no easy task! So I tied (built?) some patterns without the Skulls and tried them for bass at the local farm pond. It was late in the season and the rains began so I only tried a few patterns once. Something broke off one of my experimental patterns when it was dropping. I believe the flutter of the blade probably induced the hit.

Retrieving gained a lot of pecks from the bluegill but no bass. I've tied some more experimental patterns with the blades and will try them next Spring.

Flies with blades are nothing new. They've been around for as long as I've been flyfishing and that is long time.

Dave Whitlock once said that when it comes to warm water species of fish, we as fly anglers don't try to match a bug but the lures the spin guys use. And when I look at the successful patterns tied for bass, they are close to representing spinning lure and poppers.

I push the envelope when it comes to fly patterns and I'm willing to experiment. Some fly anglers would consider this blasphemy.

It should be interesting next Spring when I have more time to mess around with these guys:

The blades are light and because they attach directly to the shank, they cast quite easily with my bass tapper line. I use glass beads for the bearing surfaces but for additional weight, metal beads could certainly work as an option. They cast easier than a surface popper. I need to experiment more with the blades so see if I can get them to spin while retrieving the line. In moving water, I'm sure the blades would spin quite easily. I thought about making some in steelhead colors to try on the coastal streams for steelhead but I'm afraid some fly fishing purists would find out and I'd be the subject of a drive-by shooting